Alan Alda Opens Up About Having Rare Condition That Once Caused Him to Not Recognize His Daughter (Exclusive)

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7 days ago

Alan Alda has long had face blindness, or prosopagnosia, which makes it hard for him to recognize people
Alda once mistook his daughter Beatrice for a stranger while they filmed his 1981 film The Four Seasons
Alda was also diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2015Alan Alda is recalling a time his face blindness, or prosopagnosia, once caused him to mistake his daughter Beatrice for a stranger.
For her part in his 1981 film The Four Seasons — which Tina Fey recently adapted into a series for Netflix — the beloved actor, 89, had Beatrice sent out to get her hair dyed blonde so that she'd look like the two actors playing her parents. When she came back, he couldn't recognize her.
"I saw this person with horn-rimmed glasses and blonde hair staring at me, and it was starting to get distracting," Alda tells PEOPLE. "I said to the assistant director, 'Don't let these strangers come on the set.' He said, 'That's your daughter!' I don't think she was too happy about that, because neither of us knew that there was such a thing as face blindness [at the time]."
These days, Alda — who was also diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2015 — says it's still "very hard" for him to recognize people.
"When somebody comes up to me, as if they know me, I often don't know if they know me from seeing me on the screen or if I actually know them," he says. "I could have dinner with somebody, spend two hours with somebody next to me, and the next day not know who they are."
Still, his ongoing health struggles haven't stopped him. In the new Netflix adaption of The Four Seasons, Alda makes a hilarious cameo in a scene with Fey and Colman Domingo, where his character offers them some marriage advice: 'Every once in a while ... [my wife would] say, 'Congratulations! Take off your pants, it's a sex day.' You might think of trying that with your spouse.'
Like his character, Alda regularly calls upon advice from his own wife of 68 years, Arlene.
'She always says, 'The secret to marriage is a short memory,'" he says. 'We both try to practice being there when we're there: listening, answering, taking an interest. You can get used to somebody no matter who it is. I've always thought if the Pope and Mother Teresa were a couple, after a few years, they'd have to work it out."
Through his journey with Parkinson's, which has caused body tremors visible in his Four Seasons cameo, Alda says Arlene, 92, has been present every step of the way.
'I don't have dexterity with my fingers the way I used to, so sometimes she has to tear a package open for me,' he says. 'She's so good-natured about it. I'm always saying, 'Thank you.'"
While managing his Parkinson's has gone from "a part-time job to almost a full-time job" over the past decade, Alda says the positive is that "it keeps me always looking for the funny side."
The Four Seasons is streaming now on Netflix.
Read the original article on People